Talks to tackle people smuggling begin in Bali

Foreign Minister Bob Carr says 37 countries have agreed to outlaw people smuggling and cooperate in cracking down on illegal traffic at an international forum in Bali.

The Bali Process ministerial conference begun with Indonesia's foreign minister, Marty Natelegawa, calling for better prevention and early detection to stop people smuggling and human trafficking.

Senator Carr, who is attending the forum with Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor, says a closed session of the 37 countries attending agreed to engage an expert law enforcement and training organisation to coordinate a crackdown on people smuggling.

"Among the commitments that have been agreed on are the criminalisation, in the strongest expression, of people smuggling," he said.

The meeting has also agreed to form a partnership with the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation - a move also aimed at boosting the police and border security response to people smuggling.

Speaking earlier, Senator Carr said other countries needed to help with law enforcement and protecting borders.

"No one country can address these issues alone," he said.

The Australian Government has announced more than 1,000 asylum seeker arrivals since the start of last week and it is expecting the number of boat arrivals to increase dramatically.

The Greens are calling on the Government to take more refugees directly from Indonesia while senior ministers are in Bali.

But Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says there is a risk in doing that.

"One of the problems of increasing the intake out of Indonesia, and the Indonesian government have expressed concern about this themselves on occasions, is it creates a magnet for people to come to Indonesia," Mr Morrison said.

But Mr Morrison said he welcomed the creation of a new working group.

He also renewed his call for the policies which applied under the Howard Government to be restored.